Capturing Life’s Magical Imperfections

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Louise Gallagher

Life is full of magical imperfections.

I’ve always seen life through the lens of, ‘no matter how cloudy the skies, the sun still shines behind their sodden blanket.’

It’s been both a strength and a weakness, but, when I peel away the judgements that cause me to see my weaknesses as a roadblock to joy, I find that there is always a gift, always value, beauty and magical imperfections in EVERYTHING.

Always.

It just means that sometimes, life is asking me to dig deeper to find them.

Now, I also acknowledge that my rosy outlook is also a result of the inherently privileged environment in which I live my day-to-day life.

I have always had food on the table, clothes on my back, access to hot and cold running water, secure housing (ok, there was a brief period while I was in that abusive relationship where that wasn’t true) access to education, employment, health care and a host of other life necessities and niceties.

Being positive is easier when fear of nowhere to sleep, how to pay the bills, or worries about how to feed your children don’t cloud your thinking.

Which is part of the impetus for my She Dares Boldly Series. To inspire finding life’s magical imperfections in all things — big/small, consequential/inconsequential/ exciting/mundane.

I also admit, some days it’s harder to do that than others.

Which is when I need to take time for myself. I need to go back into the studio, write it out in my journal, share my sorrows, woes, and sadness with a friend, meditate, sit in silence and listen to my heartbeat, walk in nature or simply, be still.

Self-care is good care of your life and everyone in it.

Allowing and accepting the magical imperfections in how we take care of ourselves is part of the journey of aging and becoming ourselves.

Namaste

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The She Dares Boldly 2023 Calendar is available now! Order your copy HERE.

It’s amazing what is forgotten through lack of doing

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Louise Gallagher

OK. So maybe ‘amazing’ isn’t the right word, but it truly does fascinate me how lack of doing something, in this case building a video, can make building a video more difficult when I come back todoing it!

Take the video I’ve created for my She Dares Boldly 2023 Calendar. It took me DAYS! And over the course of those days (which were more precisely my weekend and evenings as my days were busy) I made countless mistakes, rebuilds, retakes, re everythings to complete the video. And, because I don’t have the finished product yet, I had to compile the pages manually – which took a bit of figuring out too!

Yet, here’s the thing. I learned lots. Enjoyed the process (even though it was chocker-block full of missteps) and have the joy of experiencing a great sense of achievement now that I’ve got it done.

There is another aspect to this calendar that is new to me! For the past 4 iterations, I’ve sold them via my Etsy store or e-transfer.

I’m still planning on doing that this year but, I wanted to let people use their paypal accounts too. Getting that properly set up on my blog took a lot of effort, and a lengthy chat with a WordPress expert – they were very patient.

In the end, it’s on my site. Etsy’s the next shop stop.

That’s all to say — the She Dares Boldly 2023 Calendar is available. Thank you to those who kept messaging me to ask if I was creating one. You inspired me. And, in the process I had the gift of learning, growing, accepting and becoming. What a lovely gift.

She Dares Boldly

Posted on October 2, 2021 by Louise Gallagher

I am immersed in video editing. Focused. Engrossed.

And slightly ticked off.

I mean seriously? How many times do I have to edit, download the finished version, hit play and discover…

…it still needs some work.

I go back to the file.

keep editing.

and editing.

Until finally, I tell myself, “Perfection is not the goal. Getting your message across is.”

As I’m nearing what I think is the final, final, final version, I’m still struggling with the ‘title’ for the calendar.

I send the two versions of the title page I’ve created to my eldest daughter. “Which one works best?” I ask.

She writes back, “She Dares Boldly.”

She Dares Boldly was not one of the two ideas I’d shared.

But my daughter is right.

It is the ‘perfect’ title.

I go back to the drawing board. Back into my files to create a new title page until finally I remind myself (again), “Perfection is not the goal.”

The moral of the story… Listen to your children!

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I am pleased to launch my 2022 She Dares Boldly desk calendar. I’ve had many requests for another #ShePersisted calendar but this year, I’m shifting out beyond the #shepersisted realm into the unlimited possibilities of #SheDaresBoldly.

Some of the images were created as part of my #ShePersisted Series but never used in the calendar so I’ve adopted and adapted them — all the quotes focus on “She Dares…”. The calendar will be available on my Etsy shop soon!